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In early January, all of Ye Zhou’s exams were finally over.
When he’d had a falling out with Shang Jin before, he’d thought that returning home also wasn’t bad. Now that he’s already good with Shang Jin, Ye Zhou was very reluctant to go home, not to mention that he’d definitely meet with his older brother this time.
Escaped New Year’s Day, still can’t escape the fifteenth.
Ye Zhou dragged himself to the dorm and was about to close it up. Finally, he began to sort out his luggage and prepared for the upcoming road home.
“Your home is so close, so why haven’t you been back?”
All the other students couldn’t wait to return home on the day the exam ended, or the day after. Apart from Ye Zhou who had his own reasons, only Shang Jin stayed in the dorm just like a person who stayed outside.
“It’s because I live near, so I’ll go back whenever I want to go back.” While Shang Jin was talking to Ye Zhou, his hands didn’t paused in the slightest while playing games, “You on the hand, tomorrow’s already the Xiaonian1, and you’re just going today?”
Ye Zhou set the suitcase upright and sat to one side, saying with a sigh, “Going back home isn’t as comfortable as being in the dorm.”
Coming out of the instance2, Shang Jin turned and said, “Whatever other people love to say, just let them say it. As long as they don’t point at your noise and force you to listen, then don’t worry about it.”
Ye Zhou unhappily said, “You think everyone can be like you, a robot completely without feelings and not caring?”
Shang Jin tsked and said, “Just saying some things. I refuse personal attacks.”
Ye Zhou scratched his head and languished on the table. Anyway, Shang Jin already knew his situation, so he wouldn’t disguise himself in front of him. Not wanting to go home was not wanting to go home: there was no need to find another excuse.
Shang Jin glanced at the time and said, “Keep dragging it on, you’re really going to be late.”
“I know, I know!” Ye Zhou hefted up his backpack, dragged his suitcase and walked to the door. He remembered one more thing. “When you leave, cover up the little pedicab.”
Shang Jin: “……”
Ye Zhou gave him a skeptical look. “Did you hear it or not?”
Shang Jin boldly and self-confidently said, “No.”
Ye Zhou: “……”
Going downstairs, Ye Zhou had planned to cover the car with an oversized plastic bag. But time waited for no one. Ye Zhou looked at the messy graffiti on the car, thought for a moment, and gave up on it.
Anyway, it was already this ugly. Dirty spots should be okay!
No matter how much he didn’t want to go home, the train still sent him back on time.
After leaving the train, Ye Zhou stood at the exit and recalled the sour experience of being squeezed on the bus last time, and his first reaction was to take a taxi. However, if he took it, he’d arrive home half an hour faster than taking the bus.
Since he didn’t want to go home earlier, and also didn’t want to be squeezed on the bus…
Ye Zhou got himself worked up into a tangle while hesitating in deciding which way to go.
“Zhou Zhou?”
When this unfamiliar yet familiar voice sounded, Ye Zhou reflexively wanted to escape.
What you’re afraid of would really come…
Ye Zhou took a deep breath and turned around, squeezing out a smile. “Brother…”
Ye Heng and Ye Zhou were about the same height. The two people weren’t very much alike. Compared with Ye Zhou, Ye Heng was gentler: wearing glasses and refined in manners. He reached out to take the suitcase from Ye Zhou’s hand. In the end, he wasn’t able to take it.
Ye Zhou’s right hand had been clutching at the suitcase handle since he saw Ye Heng. He still didn’t let go when Ye Heng was going to lift it up.
Ye Heng looked at him questioningly. “Zhou Zhou?”
Ye Zhou seemed like he’d received a shock, the hand grabbing the luggage handle suddenly jerked up.
“Let’s go to the car first.”
“Oh…” Ye Zhou followed behind Ye Heng. Even though Ye Zhou and Ye Heng were the same height now, but Ye Heng’s back was still the same as in his memory: it was lofty as a big mountain that he could never climb up.
At the side of the car, Ye Zhou really wanted to sit in the backseat, but once his brother’s eyes swept over, he could only brace himself to open the passenger door.
It was still good in the train station that was noisy all around: even if they didn’t talk, it wouldn’t be too awkward. Now that the two people were in an enclosed space, the car door isolating them from the clamor outside, the awkward atmosphere gradually grew.
Ye Zhou, who’d always been known as the little communication expert at school, was now totally possessed by muteness, lowering his head and pretending to be focused on playing on his mobile phone, only hoping that the time could go by a bit faster.
Ye Heng glanced at the side of his younger brother’s face while waiting at the red light. He tried to soften his tone and said, “How are things at school? I heard that A Uni’s infrastructure is very good. I’ve always wanted to see it.”
If this sentence was said by someone else, Ye Zhou would enthusiastically invite them and furthermore, promise to act as the guide if the other really came.
“Not bad.” Not knowing whether this was answering the school life or the school infrastructure, Ye Zhou finished talking and lowered his head to ‘devote’ himself to playing on the phone, his entire body exuding the ‘don’t talk to me’ aura.
Ye Heng continued to ask, “Do you have a girlfriend yet?”
Ye Zhou didn’t raise his head and said, “No.”
Ye Heng sighed and didn’t have any intention to continue speaking.
Ye Zhou realized this and secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. The body that had been strained all along gradually relaxed.
Ye Heng was keenly aware of this slight change and was even more frustrated.
Going all the way back home without a word, Ye Zhou entered the house and found that the family had made a table full of dishes.
Ye Zhou casually asked, “Tomorrow is the Xiaonian. How is food so sumptuous today?”
“I also said that. Isn’t it because your brother said that you’re coming back today so make a bit more food to welcome you home.” Mother Ye put out two dishes from the kitchen. “Little Heng, don’t go out again once you finish eating in a moment. Originally, you also didn’t arrive home for long. Just off the plane, you didn’t take a proper rest but insist on driving to pick your brother up. It’s not like he can’t return home by himself.”
Ye Zhou looked at Ye Heng in astonishment, not expecting that he would also only return home today.
Ye Heng responded and beckoned to Ye Zhou to sit beside him. “Let’s eat. Don’t foolishly stand there.”
“Right, Little Heng, how did you suddenly come back his time?” Ye Zhou’s family didn’t have a ‘don’t talk when you eat, don’t talk when you sleep’ rule. Father Ye took the braised pork and placed it in front of Ye Heng, switching it with the stir-fried greens. “When you returned on the Eleventh, didn’t you say that you’d be busy this Lunar New Year and wouldn’t have the time to come back?”
“Isn’t this because I miss mom’s cooking?” In a sentence, it made Mother Ye burst with joy and she pushed a few big dishes in front of Ye Heng. Ye Heng seamlessly moved these dishes in front of Ye Zhou. “It’s a little busy. My flight is tomorrow afternoon.”
Mother Ye’s incessant smile froze on her face, and even Ye Zhou raised his head to look at him. Mother Ye said, “This time is too rushed.”
Ye Heng smiled and didn’t speak.
Ye Zhou was only surprised for a few seconds. After that, he quietly became a diner. At the dinner table were the conversations between his parents and Ye Heng. Originally thinking that he could past the night in harmony like this, who knew that before the dinner finished, Mother Ye aimed a criticism at Ye Zhou, “How are you like a closed-off gourd everyday? Your brother came back and you don’t know to say a few more words. If one didn’t know, they’d think you’re strangers.”
Ye Zhou took a sip of soup. Since entering the house, his mood hadn’t been too great. “What I want to ask, didn’t you all ask it already? What else can I say?”
“Zhou Zhou, when I returned on the Eleventh, I heard dad and mom said that you took a scholarship. That’s really awesome.” Ye Heng patted Ye Zhou’s shoulder, seeming to be happy for him. “I heard that A Uni’s scholarship is very difficult to get.”
“Yeah,” Ye Zhou pursed his lips and said in a low voice. He lifted his eyes and glanced at Ye Heng. Not noticing the little complacency in his eyes, his mouth modestly said, “It’s just a second-class scholarship, so it’s not so difficult.”
“Don’t praise him. I think he’s a bit lazy now.”
Mother Ye’s sentence made Ye Zhou no longer have the interest to speak. No matter how Ye Heng asked him afterwards, he only answered him with “mms” and “ahs”. The result was that it provoked Mother Ye to scold him a spell.
At night, Ye Zhou nested in his bedroom to read. Ye Heng knocked twice on the door and pushed in to enter. Ye Zhou sat up in bed, walked over a few steps and asked, “What’s the matter?”
Ye Heng put the fruit on the table and sat on the bedside. He patted next to him and said, “Sit.”
Ye Zhou sat down a meter away from Ye Heng. His eyes wandered around, not looking at the other.
“The words that mom said, don’t take it to heart. You life has just begun. There’s no need to live by someone else’s standards. They’ve dealt with grades all their lives, so they see grades as especially important, but not everything can be measured by scores.” Ye Heng casually flipped through the book Ye Zhou had left on the bed. “There’s a lot of things in life that’s more important than scores. You can make more friends, go out and play, or meet a girl you like and fall in love. Even engrossing yourself in online games is fine. Don’t always stuff yourself in books and socialize more.”
“Yeah.” It may be that he’d repressed himself too much in front of Ye Heng, so Ye Heng didn’t know that he usually wasn’t an uncommunicative person on campus. Ye Zhou also didn’t plan to correct him. This was the first time Ye Heng said these words to him, and Ye Zhou’s nose was somewhat sour.
Ye Heng rubbed Ye Zhou’s head and stood up. Before leaving, he asked, “Tomorrow, can you send me off?”
Since going to junior high school, whether it was Ye Heng going to study abroad or going to work, Ye Zhou had always found every kind of excuses not to go. Ye Heng also didn’t request it of him. Ye Zhou nodded and said, “Okay.”
Click. The bedroom door was closed.
Ye Zhou lay in bed and was a bit confused in his head. He took out his cell phone and opened Shang Jin’s chat box.
Ye Zhou: As someone like you who has outstanding achievements, if you have a younger brother who’s inferior to you in anything and everything, how would you see him?
Shang Jin who was playing a game saw the message Ye Zhou sent. Disregarding the instance he was in, he directly picked up the phone to reply.
Shang Jin: First, I only have a three-year-old sister now. I don’t know how she’ll be in the future. Second, each person’s personality is different. If you want to ask me how your brother thinks of you, I have no way of answering. But you’re usually so noisy, I think your brother should be annoyed to death by you.
In an instant, all the little trivialities in Ye Zhou’s mind vanished. He grabbed his cell phone and hatefully jabbed at the screen.
Ye Zhou: I’m still annoyed to death by you! Not even letting out a fart in half a day! It’s almost like I’m talking to air everyday!
Shang Jin: What, do you want me to report to you when I fart later on?
Ye Zhou: …………………
Xiao Nian: the 24th day in the month preceding the Lunar New Year. instance: in-game dungeon.